Once upon a time, spouses trying to hide assets during a Kentucky divorce would turn to offshore bank accounts and similar methods of concealing how much they had. Nowadays, some parties embroiled in divorce are turning to newer, more high-tech ways of shielding assets from their former romantic partners. An increasing number of people are using cryptocurrency to do so.
According to CNBC, cryptocurrency, or digital currency, is becoming a larger issue in modern divorce cases. Estimates suggest that about 20 million Americans currently own at least one type of cryptocurrency. Yet, there are challenges related to finding it, evaluating it and transferring it.
Finding cryptocurrency
Unless one party in a marriage is aware their former partners have cryptocurrency because of past conversations about it, spouses may have to do some digging to determine if their husbands or wives own it. Those who suspect their partners might be hiding cryptocurrency may want to consider enlisting the aid of a forensic accountant to help find it.
The forensic accountant may be able to explore electronically stored information to see if one spouse does, in fact, hold digital currency. Past tax returns and or bank account transfer activity may also provide evidence of cryptocurrency.
Evaluating cryptocurrency
Parties that find that their former partners do hold cryptocurrency may encounter new challenges when it comes to evaluating and transferring it. The value of digital currency may change from day to day and week to week, so divorcing couples must account for this.
While finding, evaluating and transferring cryptocurrency is not always easy, digital currency may hold quite a bit of value, making searching for it worthwhile.